Fabiano!

Well here's something that I was somewhat wondering if I'd live long enough to see: An American Will Play For The World Chess Championship

For the first time since Bobby Fischer captivated the country, a U.S. grandmaster has a shot at becoming the undisputed world chess champion.1 Fabiano Caruana, the current world No. 3 and the top American chess grandmaster, won the right today to play for the game’s most coveted prize. He’ll face the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, in a 12-game, one-on-one match in London in November. It won’t be easy. Carlsen, the current world No. 1, has been champion since 2013 and became a grandmaster when he was 13 years old. He most recently defended his title in 2016 in New York City.

And, for a slightly more chess-oriented bit of coverage: Caruana Wins FIDE Candidates' Tournament

Fabiano Caruana won the 2018 FIDE Candidates' Tournament in Berlin convincingly. He defeated Alexander Grischuk in the final round with the black pieces. Sergey Karjakin blundered but held the draw vs Ding Liren, and both Kramnik-Mamedyarov and Aronian-So were also drawn.

Caruana will face Magnus Carlsen for the world chess championship in London in November.

Now I just have to wait 6 months.

At least I have 56 wonderful games to play through, to keep me busy until then.

By the way, Caruana's result is clearly the most impressive aspect of the tournament, and there's no way to understate 5 wins from 14 games in a field of this strength.

But don't overlook the amazing performance of 25-year-old Chinese superstar Ding Liren, who managed to play all 14 games without a single loss, and ended up coming in 4th, just 1.5 points behind Caruana. Absolutely phenomenal!